Scotland outlines £205million shovel-ready projects

Scottish construction projects worth £205million, including a raft of residential schemes, were given the green light today (20 December)

Finance Secretary John Swinney said that the capital projects, including £50 million for housing, would take place throughout 2013 and 2014.

The announcement comes just weeks after Swinney wrote to chancellor George Osborne calling for a boost to capital in investment to ensure Scotland’s full recovery from the financial crisis. It followed a 33 per cent cut to Scotland’s capital budget by the UK government.

As well as the housing windfall, the plan includes £44million for transport and regeneration projects, £19million for education, £11million for economic development projects, £10million each for maintenance of health and justice facilities and £14 million for forestry, tourism, culture, heritage and national parks.

Swinney said: “The range of projects for this year and next will see jobs created across Scotland [and] provide an immediate boost to Scotland’s construction sector.

“I welcome the fact that, after four years, the UK government has now listened and made £394 million additional capital available up to 2014-15, reducing the cut to Scotland capital budget to 26 per cent.

“This is partly undermined, however, by a reduction in our resource budget, giving us a net gain of £330 million in total.”

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